My Schools - 私の学校！

I thought it was time that I told you about my schools, without giving away any identifying details of course...


So, I have TJHS on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. From the central bus station in Hamamatsu, it takes 15 minutes to get there. As you walk down by the river and the often-flooded fields, the school comes into view. Now, I always thought that my secondary school in Wales was small, with its 450-odd students, but these schools are TINY...
One reason for this is that Junior High schools in Japan only accomodate three grades (the equivalent of year 8, 9 and 10 in the UK, ages 12-15). Another is that each class (each year is divided into 3 groups) has their own room, in which they have all their lessons. Consequently, there are only 9 necessary classrooms, with a few extra rooms for art, science and perhaps music, a gym, a dojo... and no cafeteria, as they also eat lunch in their homerooms. As I walk past the gym and tennis court into the hallway, where each member of staff has an individual locker for keeping their shoes*, I am greeted by students shouting "Hello!" and "Good morning!", which wakes me up on those slow mornings.

Golden Week - part 2 - Hamamatsuri!

Hamamatsu Matsuri = Hamamatsuri... it's one of those wonderful combined words that I'm hoping will catch on!

So, I'm FINALLY updating this...

After Tokyo, I spent three days enjoying Hamamatsu Matsuri (festival!) with some of the lovely friends that I've made here in Japan.

Day 1: After returning from Tokyo relatively early the previous night, I organised a meet-up for Monday morning. A bunch of us made our way down to Nakatajima sand dunes, where the kites were being flown. It took slightly longer than anticipated to get there, seeing as there was a MASSIVE queue for the special shuttle bus. We managed to squeeze onto the regular service bus in the end, but it was reminiscent of Tokyo's sweaty sardine feeling. When we got there, we had to walk a fair way before any actual kites were in sight - however, we were at first greeted with food stalls and taiko drums! We were allowed to try beating the drum, so to speak...


Yeah, apparently I'm a pro, but I bet they say that to all the girls...

Golden Week - part 1 - Tokyo!

What is Golden Week, I hear you cry? Yes, yes I do. Of course, if you're one of my fellow gaijin in Japan, you will know - but for everyone back home, I shall tell you. Golden Week comes but once a year in Japan... when three national holidays happen to fall on three consecutive days (3rd, 4th and 5th of May) which just so happen to be after the weekend... the 28th is also a national holiday, so we had last Thursday off, worked one day on Friday, and then had 5 days off! Of course, this is a good time to do something interesting like travel or drink a lot.

I had heard that travelling during Golden Week was pure madness, so had decided to stay in Hamamatsu for the festival that happens here every Golden Week. However, on the Thursday, I met Jessica (a fellow ALT) who told me that she and some girls from training were going to Tokyo on Saturday morning. Deciding to be a little bit spontaneous, I decided to go with her to the station to buy a ticket! We would have to take the slow train, which would take nearly 5 hours... but it was half the price of the shinkansen. The night before, I booked a room at the hostel that the girls had booked in at - it cost 4200 for a "luxury bed", which was all they had left.